Transit-Oriented Development

An advocacy group formed jointly by Reconnecting America and the Center for Neighborhood Technology, this group has been at the forefront of efforts to promote transit-oriented development, including through the 2004 book, The New Transit Town. Read more about Center for Transit-Oriented Development...

This Chicago-based non-profit group focuses on promoting transit-oriented development and related strategies that foster sustainable urban development practices. Among its many areas of activity, the Center has promoted the idea of a “location efficiency mortgage,” in which lenders take into account the reduced transportation costs of residents in transit corridors, thereby enabling families to more easily qualify for loans in TOD neighborhoods. Read more about Center for Neighborhood Technology...

The American Public Transit Association is an association of transit agencies and private firms that work in the public transit industry that advocates for strengthened and expanded public transportation. Its website includes a wide range of studies on the transit industry, including reports on public transit's economic development impact. Read more about American Public Transit Association...

Portland has long been recognized as a national leader in transit oriented development, supported by its unique "Metro" regional government. Metro's TOD implementation program aims to bring about the construction of "transit villages" and projects that concentrate a mix of retail, housing and jobs in areas around regional light-rail systems and other transit lines. Read more about Metro Transit Oriented Development...

This site, courtesy of the American Public Transit Association, provides a brief description of one of the nation's smallest cities to use transit-oriented development principles. Open since 2000, the streetcar has helped revitalize the harbor front of this city of under 100,000, located on the shore of Lake Michigan south of Milwaukee. Read more about Kenosha Streetcar...

Located in the Fruitvale neighborhood in Oakland, the Fruitvale Transit Village is an innovative collaboration of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and a local community development corporation (Unity Council) to combine affordable housing, community space, and retail establishments in a transit-oriented development project. Completed in the mid 2000s, the award-winning, 257,000 square foot project built on former BART parking lots includes a pedestrian street and plaza; 47 units of mixed-income housing; 114,000 square feet of community services, including a clinic, library, and senior cen Read more about Fruitvale Transit Village...

The Central Corridor Funders Collaborative is a group of local and national funders that supplements the programs and investments of its member foundations along the Central Corridor Light Rail Line by working with community groups and public agencies to encourage collaboration, investment, and planning. With the goal of investing $20 million over 10 years to improve access to affordable housing, foster a strong local economy, and create vibrant, transit-oriented places, the Collaborative has currently raised $5 million to date. Read more about Central Corridor Funders Collaborative...

Dallas' transit system has made significant use of transit-oriented development principles in its design. In 2010, three stations are scheduled to open in the suburb of Carrollton. In preparation, the city has adopted a master plan and hired a design firm to achieve its “vision for a transit-centered community built around passenger platforms and related mixed-use development.” Read more about Carrollton, Texas: Transit Oriented Development...

The BART system of the San Francisco Bay Area has placed increasing emphasis on transit-oriented development both to increase ridership and, as its website says, "to support and sustain BART operations with revenue from development." This website provides access to many BART station area development plans, including the one for the nationally recognized Fruitvale Transit Village in Alameda County. Read more about Bay Area Transit (BART) Station Area Planning...

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which runs the Washington DC Metro bus and rail transit system, has been one of the nation's leading practitioners of transit-oriented development. In Fiscal Year 2016, annual lease payments are expected to reach $8 million a year, and the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor in nearby Arlington, Virginia is widely seen as one of the most successful transit oriented development projects nationwide. As of 2015, Metro has catalyzed over $235 billion of economic development at or adjacent to Metro property. Read more about Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA): Joint Development Program...

In 2003, construction began to develop Thorton Place, a transit-oriented, mixed-use project, which was then simply an 8-acre lot of empty asphalt and a Metro Park-N-Ride. Two years earlier former Mayor Nickels had made the revitalization of the Northgate neighborhood a top priority and this would be one its main achievements. Read more about Thorton Place (Northgate TOD Project)...

Receiving more than $25 million in federal funding, the St. Louis Loop Trolley Project is a $44 million project that will help foster economic development between Forest Park and The Loop. Currently looking for sources of local matching funds, the Project will run 2.2 miles, including nine stops and connections to two MetroLink stations.

Founded in 1967 to coordinate planning and development within the Twin Cities metropolitan area, the Metropolitan Council provides transportation, water utility, housing, and park and open space services. It has also overseen the development of the Central Corridor Light Rail Transit, whose ridership has already surpassed 2020 projections. Additionally, new commercial and retail activity has opened all along the line and property values near the corridor have increased an additional 22 percent compared to the rest of the city. Read more about Metropolitan Council...

Miami recognized the importance of joint development as early as 1978, six years before the opening of its Metrorail transit system, and adopted a city ordinance to specifically promote joint development. A key TOD project now under development is Miami-Dade Transit’s 7th Avenue Transit Village, a $34 million mixed-use project located in Liberty City, one of Miami-Dade’s oldest communities. Phase I, completed in 2015, includes 76 units of affordable housing. Once completed, Phase II will add 100 affordable units, a community theater space, and a metro transit hub.

The Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) has operated a heritage streetcar system with three lines, the trolley system since 1993. The $56 million Madison trolley was recently added which connects downtown with the Medical District. Read more about MATA Trolley...

The Greater Memphis Greenline is a public-private partnership that is turning 400 miles of unused railway easements into a hiking and biking system. Located in Memphis and Shelby County, they are working to create and integrated multi-use trail system, and recently completed the 6-mile Shelby Farms Greenline connecting Midtown Memphis to Shelby Farms Park. Read more about Greater Memphis Greenline...

Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) is a grant program of the U.S. Department of Transportation with $1.5 billion appropriated on a competitive basis. With a $50 million grant announced in 2010 for the Green Impact Zone, many projects have been initiated in Kansas City including improved transit-stop amenities, traffic-signals, and street and sidewalk resurfacing. Read more about Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery...

Smart Moves was developed in 2002 as a cooperative initiative of the Mid-America Regional Council, the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority, Johnson County Transit, and Unified Government Transit. Smart Moves provides analysis and design studies for the transit system in Kansas City. Smart Moves' Project #398 Kansas City Streetcar analyzes the feasibility of a street car development in downtown Kansas City that will cost an estimated $101 million to construct. Read more about Smart Moves...

Through extensive cooperation by inter-governmental agencies and by voter approval in 1999, the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Denver Regional Transportation District joined forces to build transit ridership and discourage sprawl through building transit villages that will be built at the same time as the transit system itself is constructed. These transit villages, jointly developed with the private sector, are designed to be pedestrian-friendly, human-scale communities. The T-REX project finished under budget and nearly two years ahead of schedule in 2006. Read more about Transportation Expansion (T-REX) Project...